Airbnb has hired a veteran Democratic operative with ties to both Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio as it battles New York lawmakers who say the lucrative online business lets users break state and city laws and is fueling the city’s affordable-housing crisis.
Chris Lehane, known as the “master of disaster” for his handling of the Monica Lewinksy scandal and other Clinton administration crises, is Airbnb’s new head of global policy and public affairs, the company announced Thursday morning.
“In this role, Chris will be directing our work with policymakers and our efforts to educate more people, organizations and stakeholders about Airbnb and the right to share your home,” according to a statement posted on the company’s Web site.
“Chris and his team will also help organize our hosts and ensure their voices are heard loud and clear by policymakers who are learning more about Airbnb.”
In addition to his work for Bill Clinton and Al Gore, for whom he was press secretary during the 2000 presidential campaign, the Harvard-trained lawyer served as a top adviser to Cuomo when Cuomo ran the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development during the late 1990s.
Lehane has also been described as a longtime friend of de Blasio’s, who he “loosely” advised during Hizzoner’s winning campaign in 2013.
Airbnb — recently valued at $25 billion-plus ahead of an expected IPO — has been under fire from state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman over alleged tax evasion and housing-code violations committed by its “hosts.”
It’s also drawn criticism from dozens of city pols and housing advocates who say its unregulated business fills apartments with potentially dangerous strangers and encourages landlords to turn residential buildings into illegal hotels.
“No amount of spin doctoring by propaganda-meisters like Lehane can change the cold, hard reality that Airbnb is complicit in exacerbating the crisis of affordable housing for working families in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles and many other major American cities,” said Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan), a member of the anti-Airbnb “Share Better Coalition.”
Lehane replaces David Hantman, who in January came under fire during a marathon City Council hearing over illegal, short-term apartment rentals.
Following that hearing, Councilman Mark Levine (D-Manhattan), said Hantman rubbed a number of pols the wrong way.
“The representatives from Airbnb were so difficult and were evasive in some ways and at times too cute by half, I think they pushed people in the other direction,” Levine told Crain’s New York Business.